If presidential candidates shouldn’t be permitted to dance before the cameras, then they also shouldn’t be permitted to talk sports, unless they really follow sports. We saw this repeatedly with candidate John Kerry. In 2004, he claimed that his favorite player on the Boston Red Sox was “Manny Ortiz” (a conflation of the names of two other players at the time, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez) and announced to a crowd in Green Bay, Wisc., that he was honored to be present at “Lambert Field,” butchering the name of one of the most hallowed venues in the National Football League. It may have been a coincidence but the late Bart Starr, who had taken the Packers to two Super Bowls as MVP quarterback, subsequently announced his endorsement for George W. Bush.
Barack Obama, who claimed to be such an avid Chicago White Sox fan that he felt compelled to wear a White Sox warm-up jacket as he was threw out the opening pitch at the 2009 MLB All-Star game, was unable to name a single player on the team when asked who was his favorite.
Which brings us current. On Sunday, following news of Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash surfaced, Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace caught up with presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg at a town hall event, where he asked the South Bend mayor about Bryant’s passing. Buttigieg in his response referred not once but twice to Bryant’s performance “on the field.” Watch:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Pete Buttigieg opens his town hall by referring to basketball being played on a "field." pic.twitter.com/1PNFfzYH16
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) January 27, 2020
Representative of most of the comments on Twitter was this one:
"Sorry, I meant Rink."
— John the Maintenance Guy ?️ Follows you (@MaintenanceJoh1) January 27, 2020
Moral: Not following sports is nothing to be ashamed about. Not following sports but pretending you do is.
